Thursday, January 27, 2005

Never again

I fully expected to be bombarded with images of horror today. I was not. Numerous blogs for weeks already have been preparing for a "blogburst" of historical information and essays to commemorate the occasion and help instill the importance of what transpired on the ever-growing numbers of people intent on forgetting.

As my afternoon is winding down, I realize that although there has been less awareness and less coverage of this event than I assumed there would be, I have done nothing.

Reminder of our civic responsibilities: "A heroic life is made up of extraordinary moments lived in the context of daily existence. . . . It is my call as an artist not to forget, but instead to create art in the spirit of Yevgeny Khaldei that marks the moments of our time."

Some historical perspective, quoting "But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men."

I visited Auschwitz on a beautiful, sunny day after a morning rain. What struck me was how "pretty" it was — tree-lined walkways, brick dwellings — clean and orderly. For a moment I could see what the Red Cross inspectors had seen.

In that moment is the knowledge that I too can be blinded.

Santayana's reminder is written on the wall of the visitors' centre at Auschwitz: "Those who will not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

7 comments:

Michele sent me, but your post deserves far more than the chuckling I've been doing on most of the blogs. Your post stopped me in my tracks. I've seen your site before but this post would have caused me to comment whether Michele had a scavenger hunt or not. Bravo.

For six and a half years now, I have lived about 60 miles south-east of Oświęcim. I still haven't been there. I keep telling myself, "Next winter," for it seems to require cold -- frigidness -- to experience it. I think I must want to suffer a little. Silly.

I visit the Dachau concentration camp when I was twelve. I'd just realized that toes were going numb -- it was very cold for a Virginia boy like me -- when the guide mentioned that many of the inmates didn't have shoes.

I teach about 60 miles south-east of Oświęcim, and yet nothing was said in school yesterday about the significance of the day. An entire cadre of world leaders was "in the neighborhood," and not even that spurred any sort of recollection.

Unfortunately, it's not just the blogging community that is forgetting about it.